


Trouble

by orphan_account



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Age Discrepancy, Canon Era, M/M, Romance, mentions of torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-21
Updated: 2013-01-21
Packaged: 2017-11-26 08:51:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/648795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gaius rarely reminisces about the past. There is too much sorrow in it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trouble

Gaius rarely reminisces about the past. There is too much sorrow in it. When he does, he only manages to make himself unhappy. Some times, he ends up putting on his nicest robe and ogling strange men at The Rising Sun and drinking too much ale. Other times he descends into a histrionic lassitude from which he only emerges to give Merlin random and unfailingly bad advice.

The reason for his sorrows is a man known as Julius Borden.

*

He was a dark, mysterious lad with a rough voice and eyes which told everyone he was up to no good. Gaius had fallen head over heel for the young scallywag.

After a week of a normal master/apprentice relation, it only took a sultry wink from Julius and a surprised eyebrow from Gaius for them to throw caution to the wind.

Julius had shown him rare pleasures indeed. The madness of their affair had continued for months, until the purge ended it all. Julius' flamboyant experiments had marked him out as a sorcerer, and he'd been forced to flee.

He'd left his things with Gaius, even strange paraphernalia relating to black arts Gaius never knew him to have dabbled in. Until this day, so many years later, Gaius wears the scars he gained during the interrogation. He never betrayed Julius. They never managed to break him.

He wore the scars with pride, at first. As emblems of what he had sacrificed for his love. And then, as he never heard from Julius again, as there was no clue to where he needed to go to be reunited with him, the scars hurt with another sort of pain. One that centred in his chest. One that bent his back and made his joints ache, as if he was suddenly thirty years older. Just another ache to add to his old age.

*

Julius does show up, one unexpected day. He comes wet with rain, as bold and rakish as ever. In the years they have been apart, his voice has gone husky with rough living.

He offers a new adventure, he begs for the warmth of Gaius fire. But all Gaius can reply is: "You left me in a lot of trouble."

He's too tired to rake through the past, and Julius is not even interested enough to ask.

The scars hurt that night, and when Merlin leaves, on his fools errand, Gaius comforts himself in the only way he knows. He drinks too much ale, not enough to be drunk - never enough to be drunk - and watches swarthy men arm-wrestle until dawn breaks and he is forced to go home.

*


End file.
